ZAGREB, November 9, 2020 – An estimated 1,000 people gathered in Zagreb’s main square on Sunday to protest against the measures passed by the national coronavirus response team.
The protest was organised by a Facebook group which demands the dissolution of the COVID-19 crisis response team and which brings together more than 160,000 people.
The demonstrators started their march outside Zagreb’s central Railway Station on Sunday afternoon and walked towards the Trg Bana Jelacica Square disrespecting the anti-COVID rules, such as wearing protective masks and keeping a distance.
They were addressed by a dozen speakers who criticised the national response team, politicians and the media, saying that face masks were not protective, that families were paid to sign a statement saying that their loved ones had died from coronavirus, and the pandemic was referred to as the so-called pandemic.
One of the speakers was a man who on 14 October threatened to attack the head of Zagreb’s Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Alemka Markotic, while she was giving an interview for the N1 broadcaster. That incident took place in Zagreb when an N1 reporter was about to interview Markotic for N1 television channel’s news bulletin and the attacker and one more person stopped next to the television crew and their guest and started yelling, threatening them and hurling insults at them.
The organisers of today’s protest also said that the measures were political and aimed at “spreading panic and creating benefits for the ruling party and not the people.”
Members of the national coronavirus response team have entangled healthcare with politics to such an extent that they have lost the trust of the people and have turned science into a laughing stock, which will have lasting and indelible consequences for public confidence in the medical profession, the organisers said in the invitation to the rally, adding that such behaviour must stop.
Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said later on Sunday that the police would file a report on today’s rally and after that decisions could be expected whether criminal reports would be filed.
